I eventually got a hold of Far Cry 2, but I haven’t played it the last few days. It’s really very good, and even though it’s quite punishing, there’s something that makes it compelling to play. I’m just not sure what. Your gun jamming every five seconds is humiliatingly irritating, and having to push a bullet out your arm from the other side is quite sickening, but all in all, it’s a very entertaining game. There’s a lot of back and forth, with missions often requiring driving to the opposite end of the map. I’ve barely begun, but I’m concerned that some locations might be reused in later missions, because there really aren’t that many places. I’m also scared to do any free-roaming, in case I destroy something that is meant for a later mission. It’s pretty good nonetheless

I played a lot of the short demo last night, and I think it’s super duper.

It was me, Dylan and Shaun, plus a bot for a while, going at it with the zombie horde. It was great to have open channel mics with friends, telling jokes and screaming “awww jessuss aaaargH!” a lot. We’d come up with tactics and then it’d all mess up, try to sprint to the subway and get blindsided, charge out and get Smoked or Boomed. It was all hilarious still. At one point Shaun’s dad joined us, and it was great having Four humans for a while, instead of playing Left3Dead.

Towards the end of our session, in the last few rounds before I quit from exhaustion, it got overbearingly difficult. We’d barely make it out of the apartments before we get overwhelmed. It’d be dead calm, and suddenly we’d be swarmed, or we’d just lose a ridiculous amount of health to very few zombies. At three o’ clock in the morning I had to throw in the towel, wrap it up. We’d been getting thrashed for countless rounds continually, finally making it to the subway, but then Smokers, Hunters and the Witch just blew it all to hell.

This all doesn’t mean I won’t come back to it. It’s amazing, and even part of a first episode or “movie” was infinitely replayable, as we came up with new plans and tactics.

Favourite Moment: Probably when we skipped the whole apartment by jumping onto some air conditioning units on a wall and went into the alley. The craft director wasn’t having any of that though, and a torrent of Zs attacked. Funny stuff nonetheless

I’m rolling a wireless receiver up in my homebase bedroom, so online gaming and well, generally stable speedy internet is often inattainable. After a friend informed me on it, and I read a little, I was set to make a cantenna. It’s a tin can, and an antenna, all in one. So to recapitulate: tin can, internet receiver. Alongside my tinfoil aerial that was snatching those internet signals out of the air, it all gives me a joyous 3 bars on the internet-connectivity-ometer. That’s more than half a strong connection. In fact, it’s “fair”. Fair

I really think far too many excellent games have come out in the last few weeks. Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 (grr), Left 4 Dead’s pre-order demo, and I’d be drowning in Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 if I was a console gamer aswell. I just don’t have the time or money for all these great releases, so I guess I’ll have to pick some of them up for Christmas. I’ve also got my stack of games I’ve yet to finish that I won from PC Gamer (Mass Effect, Sins of a Solar Empire, Lego Indy, to mention a few) so I’ll get those played some time soon. I also found out how to get Thief and Thief 2, which I’ve had for at least a year now, running on my pc. I have to tell the game to run without using 3 of my 4 cores in my CPU, as it doesn’t understand them. With all these games, I seriously think that my discs will degrade before I play them all.

Waitaminute, I was also playing Deus Ex and Quake 2 a little while back. Damn. And I’m also going to get Hitman Blood Money, and F.E.A.R for Christmas. Damn. There are too many good games. If Condemned 2 comes to PC for Christmas time, I am going to freak out

Edit: Only Xbox Live Gold Members can download the demo currently? Go awaaaay from me

It’s only out on PSN and XBL? Why not PC? It’s coming out on PC, right? That means I have to dust off my white, loud monstrosity, download the demo, and then like, hold a controller and play. Oh well, at least this means I’ll be using my xbox for once in a long while

I had intended on picking it up for the last little while, so I finally saddled up, went over to Gamestop and took the plunge. I bought it, a reasonable forty euro investment and took a trip to McDonald’s, having a nice sundae on that chilling afternoon. I went out again about my business around town, but shortly thereafter realised I was sans Far Cry at that point. I rushed back, and- ah! thank goodness the bag is still here. I’ll just pick this up and-

Oh my, the bag is empty. No game, no receipt. Thanks a lot, you morbidly obese knacker sitting across from me. How kind of you.

A customer’s child ward (a grandson, perhaps) told me that the man across from me took it out and put it in his jacket and walked out. Golly goodness me! I ran back to Gamestop, realising the thief’s cunning, and how he would return the game and pocket my money.

I got there, and asked “Has a copy of Far Cry 2 been returned within the last twenty minutes or so”. Indeed one had, for PC. I was crestfallen, as although that was my game physically on the desk, so close, yet so far, I had no real right to own it now. By the shop’s viewpoint, a game had been bought and then returned, and anything could of conspired in between, none of it concerning the retailer. The clerk took my details, but what was he to do? Was the scumbag going to come back “Sorry, I’ve had a change of heart; Here’s the money”? I somehow doubt it.

So yeah, some man was so dishonest to actually rob me of my product and take my forty euro. Pretty slack